Resources for Uninsured Patients

Some patients need more help than others. Many patients that
are uninsured actually are qualified for Medicare, Medicaid or
SCHIP. Patients uninsured for other reasons still have a few
options. We hope the links below can help some patients.

Enroll in a health care discount program"For a few dollars a day" you can enroll in a
discount program that advertises savings of 25% to 75% on
doctor and hospital fees. One such program is Cinergy Health. Please also read this cautionary note.

Ask your employer to provide insuranceYou may be eligible for benefits that you are not
aware of.

Enroll in COBRAYou may be entitled to group discount health insurance
and not know it. If you had a job with insurance coverage
and lost the job recently you may still be eligible for
group insurance rates. The law that governs this is called
COBRA.

Go out of the countryThere are clinics in India that welcome Americans
who can travel and pay cash for their surgery. An article
titled America's New Refugees, recently published in the New
England Journal of Medicine, discusses this at length. There
are other related articles in the NEJM. See Health Tourism.

Go to an Emergency Room
If you are having pain or vomiting this is the first place
that you should go. Take care of yourself first and worry
about the bills later. If you are not sick this is the last
place you should go. You will be examined and get care for
immediately life threatening conditions but you will likely
be sent home if you do not need emergency care. A simple
emergency room visit can be costly. Unnegoitiable medical
debt is the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in
america.